After we sold our Subaru Outback 3.0, we were without a modern car again. And without a wagon.
The old arguments to buy a modern-ish wagon began to gain importance. You know, the space, as a bad weather car, as a towing car, etc. As always, I did not want to spend much money.
Nice Subarus were too hard to find, they had huge mileages or were too expensive. I was not really interested in other brands so the chance of getting another wagon was small.
One day, I was driving to the office, I got overtaken by a wagon I did not think I had seen ever before. Or noticed. A Jaguar wagon, what the hell??
I did not even know Jaguar made a wagon. Now I have to say I was not very up to date with the more modern models of Jaguar, they just did not interest me much, cars like the X-type and S-type.
The car I saw was a X-type wagon. These were sold by very low numbers here in the Netherlands. The vast majority of cars like these were bought by leasing companies, and I think the Jaguar was just too expensive. Why not get a Ford Mondeo wagon or a Peugeot, both very popular cars here.
The X-type was available with a V6 petrol engine in 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 liters. And with a four cilinder diesel engines.
The 2.5 and 3.0 petrol versions had 4WD as standard. All were available either as a sedan or a wagon. Sedans sold pretty well, but I never really liked the styling. To me, it is too much like a shortened XJ – a car with great lines.
The X-type has a plush interior.
But the wagon does not have that handicap and comes out a lot better I think. Being a Jaguar, the interior is very nice place to be.
I was not interested in a diesel car, and also not in a base stripper version. So when I found out 2.5 and 3.0 wagons existed, and they had 4WD as standard, I got searching. It turned out these larger engined wagons were almost non-existent in our country. I only found three or four in four months time. All had huge mileages. I had a test drive in a 2.5 with manual gearbox. That made me decide to look for an automatic. The manual gear change was not very precise and the clutch too heavy. I quite like manual gearboxes but in a bigger, modern car like this, an automatic box is better placed.
As Germany is near and I could not find a car in our own country, I started looking there. The German market for second hand cars is much bigger, as a result there were dozens of 2.5 or 3.0 wagons to choose from. Even now, almost 7 years later, there are 9 wagons listed for sale in Germany (and none in the Netherlands). If I would buy a car there, I had to transport it to my home and get it through the Dutch registration inspection. I would also have to pay import taxes. So, more work and more costs compared to buying a car in our country. The extra costs were countered by the fact that cars in Germany were cheaper to buy.
I choose 2 cars online which were not too far away, to visit/inspect in one day. Looked in my agenda and picked a day. Then the same afternoon I got a notification from our online local second hand Market place. I had put in a search for a car and now a new ad was published.
The original advert for my car.
I had put in a search for a car and now a new ad was published. This was for a 3.0 wagon, automatic, low miles, low price. I immediately got in touch with the seller and made an appointment for the next day.
This was the first time I test drove a 3.0 with automatic gearbox. It did seem livelier – although that may have been wishful thinking for a large part. But the auto worked well, and I liked it much better than the manual.
The car was rust and dent free, in matt black. This was a wrap, expertly done. Only when you opened the doors or hood you could see the car was actually painted silver. The interior was unmarked black leather. Although black is nothing fancy, and maybe a bit boring, I prefer it to tan leather which most X-types have.
Why? Because black is so much more easier to keep in good condition. My Subaru Outback had a tan leather interior which looked nice but – aging of the seats was clearly visible. Small cracks were everywhere. It was hard to make it look as new again.
The Jaguar was 12 years old and only had 84.000 kilometers (52.000 miles) showing on the dash. It had every option thinkable – front (rare) and rear parking distance sensors, electric heated windscreen, headlamp washers, big navigation screen, glass sliding sunroof, etc.
The seller, a shop specialized in importing Volvo wagons from Germany, explained they had to take this car in a deal with several other cars. They would not import a Volvo without service history, this car came without history. Except for the German registration papers, it has no papers at all. Which explained the low price.
Many buyers are afraid to buy a car without service history – especially a Jaguar. Jaguar still has a bad name here in the Netherlands, regarding reliability and repair/maintenance costs. I had been reading about the X-type, its development history and reading on the Jaguar X-type forums about known problems or reliability issues. Ford owned Jaguar back then, and many Ford parts can be found in the X-type. However it still is very much a Jaguar – the engine for example is based on the Ford block but has own Jaguar designed heads and manifolds. Having Ford parts is no disadvantage, in fact the Mondeo is a very good car. The 2.5 and 3.0 have a distribution chain, so no need for an expensive belt change every few years. Generally on the forums they say X-types usually are reliable and that parts are easy and not expensive to get.
This matt black wagon looked good, no damage ever, the (unproved) low miles seem to be reflected in the condition of the unmarked steering wheel, as new pedal rubbers, unmarked two remotes, very good driver’s seat and carpet. There were no noises from the suspension, no strange noises from the engine or autobox and no noise from the driveshafts.
There were a few attention points though. The Park Distance Controls did not work, the rear wiper was not working and the luggage cover rollup was missing. The radio did not receive many FM stations. And having no service history meant it would be a risk.
As it was a fresh import from Germany, it needed to be inspected for getting a Dutch registration. That inspection is like our yearly inspection, but a little more thorough. I made a deal with the seller that I would take it for the asking price provided it was delivered with a new registration (meaning it got through the inspection).
Three weeks later I got the call I could come and get the car. The inspection had showed that the handbrake function was below the norm, and the tires needed replacement. So it had new rear discs and pads and new tires when I came to collect the car.
Everyone at home loved the matt black wrap, I was not so sure. Agreed, almost anything is better than boring silver paint but matt black is not something I would have chosen. However, it does show set off the chrome very well.
One of the first things I did was making an appointment with a recommended local car shop who specialized in 90s and 00s Jaguars. I asked them to thoroughly inspect the car and doing a full service. Change fluids and maybe align the wheels. I was happy to see the car only needed rear anti roll bar rubbers and a wheel alignment. The shop kindly changed the board systems language to Dutch (from German). They also said they believed the mileage could well be true.
In the first months I bought a tow bar and installed that. The electrics for the tow bar are not quite as easy as in a classic car, this car has CAN BUS wiring meaning you cannot simply split off wires from the rear lamps – it needs a special 7-way bypass relay. Luckily the answer to any question can be found on forums, there are lively USA and UK forums for X-type owners. Installing the tow bar is a rear bumper off action. When the rear bumper was off, I tested all PDC sensors and found two faulty which I replaced.
I managed to repair the rear wiper and find a luggage cover – this was located in the UK, I had it sent over. I bought extra winter wheels and winter tires. I found the roof antennae had a loose connection, this restored the FM reception.
In our street.
Snowed in, in Austria.
The car is loved by all of my family. It is a smooth driving car, fast and quiet. The big luggage space is handy for moving classic car parts and Sylvia’s garden plants, but also for taxiing persons with luggage to airports – or getting them from airports. We once took a trip to the UK to get three very good used front seats for a 1953 Jaguar Mk7, these all fitted without problems in the car. The roof railings are useful to fix a ski box or to carry a replacement TR4 hood. The 4WD is excellent on ski holidays. The electric heated windscreen is very useful in sub zero temperatures, the car has to live on the street all year round. The powerful engine is useful for towing trailers.
Transporting a spare TR4 hood.
Over the years some parts needed replacement.
The battery gave up after only 14 years, it was still the original fitment. Rear suspension location arms needed replacing. Very easy to do.
A faulty CO sensor was the source of the Engine Warning lamp. I have a very simple ODBC reader which works via bluetooth on a free app on the phone, I was able to lookup the code and found I needed an Upstream CO sensor. These were quite expensive here, the cheapest I could find was from Rockauto in the USA. I bought one with the special spanner needed and some other parts. Exactly one year later, the same again happened! so I did the same again. This was for the other sensor in the other manifold.
At the shop.
Both rear wheel bearings were replaced. The first one was done by a shop, when I saw how easy that was I replaced the other side myself.
The right hand headlamp had a problem. It did not move up from its resting position when the car was started. I searched the forums and found the reason was most probably that a small plastic bracket inside the unit was broken. New aluminum brackets were available, better than the original plastic which degrades under the influence of UV. Repairing the lamp unit was a lot of work.
Modern cars look like wrecks when the front bumper is removed.
It meant removing the front bumper, removing the lamp unit, splitting the unit into the glass (plastic actually) part and the back part using a hair dryer to soften the glue between glass and back part. Then, after replacing the bracket, assemble it all back again. I also replace the (still working) left hand lamp unit bracket. With the front bumper off, I measured the PDC sensors, found one faulty and replaced that as well. Now I had a fully functioning PDC system front and rear again.
Upgraded the navigation system to the 2012 version. Regrettably this is the most modern version ever to be available on this ancient system.
In my garage.
Usually nothing much came up at the yearly inspection. This year it was different. Three (!) of the four road springs were broken. The exhaust had a bad section. The hand brake performance was below the norm. The exhaust emissions were above the norm. An engine mount needed replacement, as did a steering joint. The sills needed patching at a a few spots (rusty sills are an X-type known weak point).
Floor boards are heavy! Luckily this was only driven over a distance of less than a mile.
I had bought a very good second hand rear exhaust system a few year earlier from a front damaged car as I noticed the exhaust back part of my car was getting rustier all the time – I was expecting a fail already a couple of years before. These exhaust are quite expensive new. This part came in handy now.
As these were never changed while in my possession and by thinking these might have an effect on the exhaust emissions, I changed the spark plugs. Not as easy as it sounds, it involves taking off the inlet manifold. Glad I did, the old plugs were worn quite bad.
All the other work was done by a local young guy who had just got his Car Mechanic degree. He has owned his X-type (sedan) for nine years, and I had bought some parts from him before: his hobby was to dismantle old/damaged Jaguars and selling the parts. Earlier I had bought the park distance control sensors off him, plus handbooks for the car. He was able to use a hydraulic spring compressor from his boss, and also was not afraid to lower the complete rear suspension subframe (needed to install the “new” exhaust). His friend was a welder by profession and offered to weld in complete new sills. I was happy to find these young specialists and pay them for the work, which I would not have liked doing myself. I am not afraid to work on classic cars but rather leave the work for these newer cars to someone else.
Worn out spark plug.
It all did cost a fair bit but then I have never have had much maintenance costs for the X-type over the 6,5 years. Spread over the years I am happy to see the costs are still far, far below to what a Consumer Guide finds reasonable for car maintenance for a modern car. Yes, I still see this as a modern car even though it is now approaching 20 years of age!
Apart from the maintenance costs, there are the fuel costs. These are quite high, the 3.0 is not a frugal car. However, the car is not used daily for commuting. It is here for the odd shopping duties and bad weather driving, so the matter of a low miles per gallon is not too much of a worry.
My daughter borrowed the car for a weekend. She parked it at a big parking square, full with other parked cars. When she returned the next day this is how she found the car back.
The matt black wrap is getting uglier. I did not think the matt wrap could go more matt but it does on the hood and roof. I do not have the courage yet to take it off and see the car in its real paint. And maybe re-wrap in a different color? What is the life expectancy date for a car wrap anyway? When I bought the car the wrap was a few years old already so it has lasted for at least 9 or 10 years.
If I would have to name one thing that I would have liked better, it would be having auto closure of the rear door. It is quite heavy to close with one hand. Apart from that, it is nearly a perfect car for the tasks we use it for.
Further reading:
Curbside Classic: Jaguar X-Type – What’s In A Badge?
Curbside Classic: 2001-09 Jaguar X-Type – X-Typecast
Curbside Project Car: 2005 Jaguar X-Type AWD 3.0 Wagon – Will It Be Hellcat Or Hellokitty?
Thanks for another fun read, I look forward to your updates every sunday morning.
Whilst looking for a new lease car for my girlfriend last year, we did consider a Jaguar. The current models (xj/xf) again look nicer as a wagon than as a sedan, and we really liked the look of a green xj wagon. However, the engine lineup has aged, as in, doesn’t line up with the (ever changing) requirements of lease cars and seems diesel-focused. On some level it’s laudable they don’t offer a 1.5 turbo in such a car, but that’s the kind of engine we needed, or a hybrid.
I’ve admired these Jaguar wagons, and enjoy reading about them here when they come up. Here in the US, I have to hand it to Jaguar for thinking to import these, pretty much at the last gasp of wagons in America. I suppose the fact that Jaguar was part of Ford as was Volvo at the time meant that there was some corporate faith that if Americans would buy Swedish-Ford wagons, they might also buy British-Ford wagons. Hummmmmm. Whatever, they’re neat cars.
If I were you, I’d take the plunge and remove the wrap. I’ll bet that the paint is like new beneath that. It might be fun to have a whole new look for the remainder of your ownership. I’m also very much in agreement about the merits of a black leather interior over a tan one. I’d bet that aside from some wear on places like the left side seat back bolster of the driver’s seat, that interior looks pretty good. Tan would look shabby in comparison at this age.
Thanks for the excellent story!
We have our absurd CAFE regulatory scheme to blame for the near-disappearance of wagons (and truly compact pickups) in the US market, and why the few we do still get tend to be from upscale marques, to help justify their CAFE penalty:
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/10/how-cafe-killed-compact-trucks-and-station-wagons/
Thanks Jeff. I feel an unwrap is coming soon I get more and more annoyed at the matt patches on the horizontal parts 🙂
I identify with your lightbulb moment, when you realize that someone has been making exactly what you want, only you didn’t know it until you saw one at random. That has happened to me too over the years.
That black wrap is really intriguing. I am not sure I could have resisted the temptation to peel it all off and get to the silver car underneath. However, it has not been in bad condition and maybe it was put on to cover paint problems underneath. I am still not sure what I would do in your place.
It is funny how a 20 year old car now seems modern. When we were young, a 20 year old car was an ancient thing that no normal person would choose to drive. Times change.
Regarding the 20 year old car – so true. Back when I had my first car 40 years ago, 20 year old cars were just not on the road anymore and were seen as very old.
Now, apart from possibly the fuel consumption, my Jaguar is not old fashioned at all (to me). Of course it misses out on newer inventions like lane departure warnings and automatic cruise (where the car keeps a same distance to the car in front, braking and accelerating on its own) but I do not miss these. Maybe these virtues are more important when you are on the road much every day.
Great read – pleased you found a good one.
I wrapped the scabby chrome on my KB1 Legend’s bumpers & grille. The rear bumper chrome faded in the sun very quickly and looked worse than the scabby chrome. So I re-heated it with the gun & peeled it off. I then jet-washed off the remaining chrome, so now have black inserts. Mis-match doesn’t really notice.
I’ve never done a whole car with a better-quality wrap, but in principle, it’s quite easy.
Depends what you find underneath…usually the paint has to be very good, in order to get a smooth wrap. So a heavy compound with a random orbital should suffice. I think tar remover works on the adhesive residue.
I’ve been waiting for this one, and it delivered. Having had both a sedan and now a wagon, i don’t mind the sedan’s styling but see what people criticize about it, however the wagon just works stylistically. Perhaps the rarity here (only 1600 sold here) is part of that. Either version though is distinctive and won’t be confused for anything else (besides a bigger Jaguar).
We still regularly get people noticing it and asking what it is at gas stations, even a homeless guy on a corner as we stopped at a light, they have no idea Jaguar ever made a wagon and ask questions! And didn’t realize the newer XF was also available that way, but seemingly just as rare.
You’re lucky that you have no noises, we have several in the drivetrain that I can’t seem to isolate (the sedan started making rear diff noises when we had it as well, but it never went bad). It’s just various mechanical noises indicating something is not quite right but it could be wear from prior misattention, ours is at over 170k miles now. I now wonder if the rear wheel bearings are the issue, I do have two spare SKF rear wheel hub assemblies (the whole assembly including bearing was being clearance-saled for $34 each last year so I bought two for the shelf). I replaced both fronts when I redid the suspension which took care of that noise but there’s still a “graunchy” noise in the system.
The interiors wear VERY well, ours (in gray) has no issues with the seat materials, the steering wheel center plastic is a bit worn around the buttons and a couple of surface edges like the top of one door panel and the headliner are starting to pull away in a couple of places. I see a lot of the sedans in the junkyard and in general they all hold up very well in the interior, including (actually especially) the tan ones, the opposite of what you’d think.
My son loves it (it’s his now), even if there is a long list of things we still need to address on it including some of what you mentioned on yours. The noise doesn’t concern him, he just turns up the radio, it’s also not audible outside the car, just inside.
They did turn out to be very durable cars, their curse is that they are so cheap, which then causes people to buy them due to the price who can’t afford to pay someone to fix the things that do eventually go wrong with them although as you stated the parts generally are very available and very inexpensive.
I hope it continues to serve you well.
Yes lots of Ford parts because it is a restyled Ford Mondeo the 4 banger diesel its a Peugeot Ford Citroen unit and with the diesel it uses the entire PSA powertrain, parts should be as easy to get in Europe as they are here in far away NZ.
The first and only time I saw a Jag wagon was at a somewhat offbeat sculpture garden here in Minnesota. Very fitting I thought as it would take a creative individual or at least someone with creative interests to appreciate such a rare cat. I admired it for 10 or 15 minutes with the hope of meeting and interrogating its owner but they never showed. I laughed when I saw the picture of yours loaded with new flooring boards. You were very smart to only drive one mile with such a heavy load. I on the other had did the very same thing with the same amount of flooring in my 97 Honda Civic EX two door with the rear seat folded flat. However I was trying to impress a girlfriend at the time and drove about 30 miles to her house. After unloading and heading home later that night I immediately heard the rear springs creaking. A week later upon closer inspection the springs along with the shocks were toast. Rather than replace them (like anyone of sound mind would have) and keep it for another 100k miles, I traded it in towards a Volvo C30 T5. While the C30 was a blast to drive it was nowhere near as reliable as my Civic.
It might well be that those floorboards were the reason both rear springs were found broken at the next annual inspection 🙂 Indeed the car was too heavy but seeing my daughter literally lives within a mile from us I took the chance. Not recommended.
Bilateral agreements prevent the Netherlands from levying import taxes on vehicles imported from other European Union member countries. Unless, of course, the difference in sales tax percentages between both countries are to be adjusted.
Residing on Germany, I have not yet been asked to pay even one cent in import duties, after having bought my vehicle in the Netherlands. After having brought it in though, I fully understand as to why Dutch vehicle inspection certifications aren’t recognized in other E.U. member countries. After having my imported vehicle officially inspected here, numerous safety defects were found. This is what happens, when individual garages are allowed to conduct their own certified inspections. In my case, none of these criminals involved were even Dutch:
Images of which somehow failed upload;
The above-pictured bushing is a no-brainer to figure
So is this following floorboard damage:
There may be some flaws in our system. However for the most part it works well. The annual inspection is quite strict, for example all bushings should be checked for play and the one you found should not have passed. Rust appearing may be a problem if it is near a stress area like a suspension attachment point. In non-stressed areas some rust would not be a fail point.
The RDW (a government body) performs random checks on these garage inspection passes. If a pass was found to be faulty the garage gets a notice. If a second random check is found faulty at that garage then permission to do the annual inspection is revoked. Because for many (most) garages the permission to do the yearly inspection is a major business, this is not taken lightly.
Revoking a license doesen’t seem to be “not taken lightly” enough, given that these types will simply sign-over their garages to one of their numerous relatives, if authorities were to shut these shops down.
It would be a miracle, if this garage didn’t cause a serious “accident”, through their fraudulent conduct. If the “accident” were to be fatal, the press would simply label the cause as the usual “technical defect”, just like railroad track suicides get reported as “emergency on railroad”. In the Netherlands, just like in most every Western society, the courts will make lienient adjustments for certain groups, assessing their ethics’s familiarity to that of which is common among their members in their places of origin. If a Dutch person were to commit an equal crime, you can be sure that his punishment would be much more severe.
The following inspection of the same vehicle shows that the rusted structures did indeed pertain to vital stress areas, among other safety deficits
More proof, including the floorboard damage previously shown:
I tried X-Types twice – firstly a 2.5 back in 2002. I loved the interior but I found it gutless for a V6 – the V6 smoothness wasn’t enough to justify the uplift in UK company car tax and there was no diesel at the time. The killer was the notchy manual gearbox. That time I ended up with a BMW E46 320d Touring which I loved despite it killing my back with its misaligned driving position. I then tried the 2.0D estate in 2005, but it was slow vs the German competition (no 2.2D variant at that time), and rode and handled worse than the Mondeo it was based on, and for me the interior wasn’t worth the premium. The gearbox was fine – maybe an AWD vs. FWD thing. That time I went for a E91 320d Touring which had none of the character of the E46 but my back improved. But I still think X-Types are extremely smart cars, especially the Sport and all my colleagues who had them loved them – they were comfortable and nothing ever went wrong. So I’m very happy to hear your experience (and those with your earlier British cars).
Do Jaguar buffs consider the X-type a real Jag, or does its Ford Mondeo DNA disqualify it? I was in the Saab subculture for quite a few years. Some people definitely looked down their noses at the 9-3 with its Opel Vectra platform and the 9-5, which shared its platform with the Alfa-Romeo 164, Fiat Croma, and Lancia Thema.
At the time the X-type wagon was introduced in Europe, I showed a picture of it in CAR Magazine to a couple of 20something female baristas at my local Starbucks in Seattle. One barista’s immediate reaction was, “That’s wrong!”
I tried to buy a Saab 9-2X not very long ago. Because I like Subaru and because it is a nice package. And because it was never sold in Europe. And because I was sure it would be disqualified by Saab people here – and Subaru people 🙂
Ah, the Jaguar buffs.
There is a group that thinks Jaguar is only Jaguar when William Lyons had a say in it (he approved the Jaguar XJS and I think the series 3 XJ).
There is a group that thinks Jaguar is only Jaguar before the Ford takeover.
There is a group that thinks Jaguar is only Jaguar if it has real wheel drive.
There is a group that thinks Jaguar is only Jaguar if it has a petrol engine, not diesel or electric.
There is a group that thinks Jaguar is only Jaguar with six cylinder inline engines, not the later V8 or V6.
There is a group that thinks Jaguar is only Jaguar before they went selling SUVs.
Etcetera. So it matters who you speak to.
Should you care? Only if you susceptible for this kind of thing.
I must say I also feel something like that. While I enjoy X-type a lot, I do not really see it as a “proper” Jaguar. For me the border is the SUVs and the too-modern (but already discontinued) XJ sedan from 2010 onwards. The X-type is a very good family car but it lacks presence.
But so what?